HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER

Hokitika Guardian, 13 October 1932, Page 6

HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT. WELLINGTON, October 11. . ■ ’ Administration of hydro-electric power supply in New Zealand as a separate entity in the. future was suggested by Air E. Hitchcock, general manager of the Christchurch Municipal Electricity Department, in addressing the annual meeting to-day of the Supply Authority Engineers’ Association. Speaking in the capacity of retiring president of the association, Mr Hitchcock traced the history of electrical development in the Dominion and referred to possible new,uses for “white coal.’/

Extensive hydro-electric development had now been established, said Air Hitchcock, and the benefits from it were great. The rate of electrical development had been similar to other developments in the Dominion—rapid, and the results relatively advanced. This fact wa,s unhappily reflected in the fact that a country of a million and a half inhabitants was carrying a public debt of £281,000,600. Electrically, however, New Zealand had been extensively reticulated. The power board method, introduced early in the history of electrical supply, had made for the best security and assurance of future supply. “In attempting to deal with the future of electrical supply, there is always the rich field of speculation in possible new uses of electricity,” the speaker said. “It is possible there may be an daily and revolutionary change in fighting. Individual lamps and fittings will 'tend to give place to a form of lighting in, which architectural features, either exterior or interior, are themselves made luminous. The advent of gaseous electric lamps or tubes in practical forms for ordinary voltages may witness both a much reduced consumption and a greatly increased .use of light.”